Rockin' the Rouvenaz, Montreux 2000

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Rouvenaz Stage

The Kiosk a Musique de la Rouvenaz may be a half mile down the street from the main site at the Centre de Congres, but it's fully plugged into the spirit of the Montreux Jazz Festival.

In this intimate park setting, with its permanent wooden bandshell, several hundred music lovers can relax on benches or have a leisurely snack on picnic tables while enjoying a wide variety of musical styles from, literally, around the world. For example, on Friday, July 21st, you can start in Switzerland with Big Band Surprise, gyrate over to Cuba with Los Mambos, swing down under to Australia with the Sydney-Zenith Jazz Blues Band, and then close your evening with America's Sara Wheeler.

A Deceptive Answer

Such eclectic variety calls for a sound system of extraordinary clarity and flexibility - and one appropriate for both the intimate size of the venue and the moderately tight city noise ordinances. Fortunately, Meyer Sound has the answer in the compact but deceptively powerful UPA-1P. Augmented by a pair of 650-P subwoofers, the quartet of UPA-1Ps easily fills the designated audience area with clear, robust sound.

One of Many

The system at the Rouvenaz site is just one of more than two dozen separate sound systems provided by Meyer Sound for the 34th Montreux Jazz Festival. From the premier systems in Stravinski Auditorium and Miles Davis Hall down to portable systems for Marche events and press conferences, more than 200 Meyer Sound loudspeakers valued at over $2 million will be in use during the festival. Everywhere you look, you are likely to find Meyer speakers. You'll find HD-1 monitors not only at the FOH mix positions, but also in the recording trucks and video production studios. Yet more Meyer speakers keep the party going into the wee hours at the festival-sponsored Montreux Jazz Cafe and B3 Bar/Pub, in the Hennessy Bar and at the PT Cruiser Cafe, as well as in systems for the Sunday boat excursions on Lac Leman. Virtually every Meyer Sound product available is represented somewhere in Montreux, and this year several products make their Montreux debut, including the LD-2 line driver, the production QuickFly rigging system, and a prototype of the new VEAM/VIM combined interconnect system for audio, AC line and RMS data.

The Swiss Laboratory

The company's complete name is Meyer Sound Laboratories, and year after year the Montreux Jazz Festival plays a key role in developing and refining audio technology.

"One benefit of doing Montreux year after year is that we have a chance to continually work on incremental improvements," states Meyer's Mark Johnson. "Instead of getting in, doing a show and getting out, we have time to observe carefully, even making improvements during the course of the festival. Unquestionably, our involvement here at Montreux has played a role in the development of almost every new product we've introduced in the last dozen years."

July, 2000

UPA-1P

650-P

HD-1

LD-2

QuickFly

VEAM

RMS

Montreux 2000